The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1887-08-19

creants. heartless and with only criminal
Instincts. was on hand, and, like the vul-
lures who throng Q battlefield the night
after the conflict and rob from the dead the
money which they received for their
meager pay, stealing even the bronze
medals and robbinR from the children Of
| heroes tho other emblems of their fathers
bravery, SO last night did these human
| hyenas plumber the dead from this terrible
accident and take even the shoes which
cover their feet Who these wretches are
Is not known.
Whether they were . band Of pickpock-
cts who accompanied the train or some rob-
Der gang who were lurking in the vicinity
can not be said. The horrible suspicion,
however, exists, and there are many who
give it credit, that the accident was DELHI
erately planned case Of train-wrecking;
| that the bridge was set afire by miscreants
who hoped to seize the opportunity offered.
| and the fact that the bridge was SO far con-
| sumed at the time the train came along.
| and the fact that the train was IN hour
| and . half late, are pointed out IS
| evidence OF q careful conspiracy. 1t
| seems hardly possible that men
could be so lost to all the ordinary feelings
which animate the basest of the human
| race, but still men who will rob dead men,
| who will steal from the dying and will
plumber the wounded, held down by
broken beams Of wrecked car and whose
death by fire seemed imminent can do
most any thing which is base. and that is
what these fiends in human form did. They
| went into the cars when tho fire was
UNDERNEATH vvbn hA or
wretches pinned there begged them for
Gods sake to help them out. stripped them
Of their watches and jewelry and searched
their pockets for money.
When the dead bodies were laid out IN
the cornfield these hyenas turned them
over in their search for valuables, and that
the plundering was done by an organized
gang was proven by the fact that this
morning out in the cornfield sixteen purses.
all empty, were found IN one heap. 1t was
a CHASTITY plunderIng, and had the plumber
ers been caught they would surely have
been lynched.
CHARMED HOUSES.
CHATswoRTH, ILL.,, Aug. 12.-Charnel
houses and hospitals made up last night
what had been the peaceful village Of Chats
worth. OF 500 merry excursionists Journ-
eying by here to the falls Of Niagara
twenty-four hours ago, fully half that num-
Der have since passed through maelstrom
more fearful than all the whirling waters
they were travelling far to see. Eighty
four Of them-blackened, mangled corpses
are scattered in the depots, schools and en-
CINE houses here and at Piper City and are
being carried on trains in all directions to
their homes, while lis bandaged, moaning
cripples are still held on all the available
mattresses, beds, chairs and floors in the
vicinity, struggling for little lease Of life.
The streets of Chatswcrth are wild with
crowds Of anxious seekers for friends and
relatives and with crowds of bustling
people hurrying for medicines, slowly bear
ing rude pine coflns to the trains, or talk
ing earnestly of the horror that had caused
the CONSERVATION.
In relating his experience Of the disaster,
r. G. Fisher, of Kankakee, said: II was
at Ell Paso, and missed the excursion train
by less than five minutes. l then took a
freight twenty-six minutes later, and when
we got to Forest the conductor had orders
to leave all his loads, secure all the phys
icians he could and proceed to wreck
three miles east of Chatsworth. Upsn
arriving at the scene of the disaster we
found the most heartrending and in
describabie scene ever witnessed. Men,
women and children were begging to be
taken from the wreck. What made the
situation still more appalling was the fire
on the bridge with no water at hand with
which to do any thing. All on the train,
and such passengers as were able to do so,
procured dirt and tried in every way posi-
BILE to smother the fire. They were so far
successful as to prevent its getting hold of
the wrecked cars. Had it reached the wreck
hundreds of wounded and imprisoned pas
sengers would have persisted in the flames.
We worked from the time of the arrival of
the train till about 30 a. m. in trying 10
eXtrlcate the suffering, who were in such
dread Of the fire, and at that time a friend
ly shower Of rain relieved US from all fear
of the fire. We then went to work more
deliberately and continued up to three
O'Clock, during which time we re-
moved fifty-eight dead and three or
four times as many wounded. A
relief train from the East took
large number OF wounded out to Piper City
The city hail and court house at Piper City
were improvised into hospital and the
citizens came to our relief. Mr.. FISHER
said that they had nothing with which to
carry dirt to the wreck but their hands.
He stood the sickening work of relieving
the wounded and getting out the dead until
he came to the dead bodies OF two girls
about the age of his own, when his human
ity gave way and he was compelled to stop.
CAUSE OF THE CATASTROPHE.
CHATswoRTH, ILL.,, Aug. I2.-Indirectly
the catastrophe was ascribed to the origin
of so many other recent calamities-the I'M
precedented drought. The tall grass under
a little culvert on the Toledo, Peoria Il
Western railroad few miles east of Chats |
worth had been rendered by the sun as
dry as finder and Wednesday night u
locomotive spark set it ablaze. The
timbers of the culvert caught fire |
and were smoldering unseen when a |
train of sixteen coaches of excursion |
lists from Peoria, Bloomington and |
cities approached. There was |
a terrible crash, and an accident almost I'M |
precedented in horror had passed into his |
tory. That was the brief story quietly |
cleaned on the streets OF Chatsworth. A |
short ride brought one from the sickening |
sights OF the city to the place where the |
occurred. 1t was a wild scene |
at the wreck in the driving darkness. The |
tangled iron and wood and the various de- |
bris presented much the same appearance |
il did at the time of the accident The en-
CINE, shattered out of all shape. lay in the |
ditch about 200 feet beyond the culvert and |
the broken cars were strewn all over the
track.
The culvert, which was about thirty-two
feet in length, showed broken and burned
timbcrs, and gave evidence at glance OF
the cause of the accident. The little ditch
which the culvert SPAWNED was about ten
feet deep, and the timbers had been burned
away by the fires which had been raging in
this vicinity. The heavily laden train,
rushing down grade of about forty-eight
feet to the mile, struck the culvert. The